with CTL staff and the subject matter expert (SME) to establish timelines, gather preliminary information, and generally ensure everyone’s on the same page. After that is when the magic happens. One of the CTL’s instructional designers will continue to meet with the SME to make sure that the course content will help students meet the course objectives and to help them create that content. Other staffmembers (such as the Instructional Media Producer and the User Experience Designer and Editor — me!) are brought into the course development projects when their skills are needed; rarely do courses exist without needing video pieces. Each course is reviewed carefully with the benefit of years of experience developing quality courses. The CTL’s recent course project résumé (84 courses created from scratch or as full-scale revisions since 2021) only strengthens the quality of online courses yet to come. HOW DOES A FACE-TO-FACE COURSE GET TRANSFORMED INTO AN ONLINE COURSE? Sometimes, you can directly translate some elements from a face-to-face course to its online version. In-class discussions can easily become discussion boards where students respond to an initial prompt, then converse with other students about their responses. Written assignments are typically still turned in online even for a face-to-face course, so there’s not much change there. Any potential paper quizzes or exams can easily be built online using a quiz tool. The delivery of the course content, however, is an area where we can see some of the biggest differences. For a lecture-based class, the entire lecture could simply be recorded and placed inside the course for students to watch. But while that does technically work, it’s not the most effective way to present the information for students to actually learn and understand. Instead, online courses will often use shorter videos (typically between 6–12 minutes) laser-focused on the topic. Courses also sometimes use written introductions or pieces from the instructor to convey the information, or even a content guide where the assigned readings are interspersed through a written piece, giving context and transitions between each. This is where the CTL's expertise shines, as staff 25
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